The Genocidal Madness of Idealism: Back by Popular Demand!

May 21 - Jul 31, 2009

Controversial Exhibition returns for Summer 2009

Due to overwhelming response, Paul Rodgers/9W is pleased to re-present last year's summer exhibition 'The Genocidal Madness of Idealism' in Summer 2009. The exhibition examines the influence of television on the imagination and links it to the market for contemporary art.

Omni-present in the domestic environment, television represents a real-time, surrogate imagination that occupies the new entity of a collective mind born out of belief in a sociologically determined 'visual culture'. Staggering statistics underscore our relationship to television's influence. According to the A.C. Nielson Co., in a 65 year life, the average American will have spent 9 years watching television.

The medium of television is inseparable from the idea that culture exists in a market place. The average child sees 20,000 thirty-second commercials per year, inundated with market-motivated persuasion. While art was previously anchored in intellectual meaning, in the contemporary art market it is reduced to the status of a commerical product. Now that the world economy has to confront the break-down of its market model, this exhibition poses the question for the art world to contemplate: what remains of contemporary art if it is taken out of its market context?

What an extraordinary difference one year makes! Welcome, again, to the 'The Genocidal Madness of Idealism.'

The exhibition opens May 21 and will remain on view through July 2009.